WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The U.S. government cleared the way on Monday for thousands more
foreign workers to enter the country under temporary seasonal visas, just as
President Donald Trump declared this "Made In America" week and
pledged to stand up for U.S. workers.

Advocates
of stricter limits on immigration criticized the additional visas, saying
American workers should get job openings.

Trump, a
former New York real estate magnate who has relied on seasonal workers at his
hotels and resorts, campaigned on promises to restore American jobs. On Monday,
he showcased "Made in America" products at the White House and made
an impassioned defense of America First policies.

"We're
going to stand up for our companies and maybe most importantly for our
workers," the Republican president said. "Clearly it's time for a new
policy, one defined by two simple rules: We will buy American. And we will hire
American."

Federal
officials said there were not enough qualified and willing American workers available
to perform certain types of temporary nonagricultural work.

As a result,
the government will allow 15,000 additional visas for temporary seasonal
workers, meant to help American businesses in danger of suffering irreparable
harm because of a shortage of such labor, the Department of Homeland Security
said in a statement.

"As
a demonstration of the administration's commitment to supporting American
businesses, DHS is providing this one-time increase to the congressionally set
annual cap," Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said in a
statement.

Many
seasonal businesses such as resorts, landscaping companies and seafood
harvesters and processors had sought permission to temporarily hire more
immigrants.

Congress
originally set the cap at 66,000 workers for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
In May, lawmakers gave Kelly authority to approve up to an additional 70,000
temporary visas and pleaded with him to use his authority to issue as many of
them as he thought appropriate.

Roy Beck,
president of NumbersUSA, a group that supports immigration controls, said in a
statement the decision "threatens to reverse the trend of reports emerging
around the country of employers working harder and raising pay to successfully
recruit more unemployed Americans for lower-skilled jobs."

Beck said it was "yet another example of the administration
and Congress failing to keep the Trump campaign promise of putting American
workers first."

'Minimal
Relief Granted'

Trump
campaigned on an "America First" platform of favoring Americans for
hiring. Trump's golf resorts in Florida have used the visas, however, to hire
temporary guest workers (reut.rs/1R4pKma).

The clothing line of the president's older daughter and adviser,
Ivanka Trump, uses foreign factories employing low-wage workers in countries
such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China, a recent Washington Post report
showed.

A group of U.S. companies that use the visas, called the
"the H-2B Workforce Coalition," praised the "minimal relief
granted."

It said: "From landscapers in Colorado to innkeepers in
Maine to seafood processors along the Gulf Coast to carnivals nationwide, we
hope the visa expansion will help some businesses avoid substantial financial
loss, and in some cases, prevent early business closures during their peak
season."

A report on Monday by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal
think tank, found, however, there was little evidence of worker shortages in H-2B
jobs at the national level.

“Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve
protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow
unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the
low-wage labor market,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and
policy research at the institute.

Kelly has acknowledged that many temporary workers "are
victimized when they come up here, in terms of what they’re paid."

DHS said the government had created a tip line to report any
abuse of the visas or employer violations.

NOTE: "Advocates of stricter limits on immigration criticized the additional visas, saying American workers should get job openings."Right. This is the blatant lie that undergirds the entire "send them back to where they come from movement." Here's what one Homeland Security official said about the increase:"The increase absolutely does fit in with Trump's campaign promises. We're talking about American businesses that are at risk of suffering irreparable harm if they don't get additional H-2B workers." Here's what Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) had to say:"A lot of the arguments for this kind of program boil down to this: No American worker will do that job. That's a lie. It is a lie. There is no job that Americans will not do." Sure. Tell that to the California and Alabama farmers whose crops are rotting in their fields since undocumented workers are afraid of being rounded up if they show up. As far as I know, there have been no Americans who have taken up the slack. Cotton goes on to say:"If the wage is decent, and the employer obeys the law, Americans will do the job. And if it's not, they should pay higher wages.

B I N G O!

Senator Cotton gets it absolutely right: If wages were higher and working conditions better, there would be no problem. Obviously, this is not the reality. Also, did you know that the Trump Administration has deported come 1,400 veterans who served in the U.S. Military? Yes, that's right. Trump has kicked out folks who put their lives at risk by fighting for America.

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